In the 2009 draft, the Broncos and coach Josh McDaniels so badly wanted to select Wake Forest cornerback Alphonso Smith they paid a heavy price to get him. The Broncos made a deal with the Seattle Seahawks. The Broncos got the Seahawks’ No. 37 overall pick in the second round in exchange for one of the Broncos’ first-round picks in the following year’s draft.

That 2010 first-round pick turned out to be No. 14 overall. The Seahawks took Earl Thomas III, who is only the best safety in the NFL. Ouch!

What’s up: Bill Belichick begins his 20th season as an NFL head coach seeking his 200th regular-season victory. He will become the seventh coach in NFL history to reach that milestone. He was 41-55 in his first six seasons (five with the Cleveland Browns), 158-94 in his past 13 seasons — an average of 12-4 per year.

Background: Joe DiMaggio could not have had better baseball instincts than former Rockies outfielder Larry Walker, who grew up playing hockey goalie in Canada. The Albert Einstein of football is Belichick, whose best and favorite sport at Annapolis (Md.) High School was lacrosse. Belichick spent the 1978 season with the Broncos as a special-teams and defensive assistant.

Klis’ take: With apologies to Peyton Manning and Johnny Football, I have long thought Belichick is the most fascinating person in the NFL. It’s not often a coach is so wildly successful and universally disliked. A rebuilding season for Belichick is 10-6, 11-5. Some people say he wasn’t a very good coach until Tom Brady came along. I say Belichick took a sixth-round QB and made him Tom Brady. Belichick also is a reminder of how difficult it is to win in the NFL. Since his third Super Bowl championship in 2004, he has had seasons of 16-0, 14-2, 13-3 and three 12-4s — but he hasn’t picked up that fourth title ring. Once again, Beli- chick’s Patriots and Manning’s Broncos are the teams to beat in the AFC.

JERSEY CITY, N.J. — There was playing for John Fox as he recovered from open-heart surgery in November.

And there’s winning one for Fox’s financial security. The Broncos head coach has an incentive in his contract that pays him a $1 million bonus for winning the Super Bowl.

Fox’s Broncos play in the Super Bowl today against the Seattle Seahawks.

Such incentives, which was first reported today by ESPN, are common in coaches’ contracts. Fox initially signed a four-year contract worth about $12 million when the Broncos hired him to replace Josh McDaniels after the 2010 season.

Win or lose the Super Bowl, Fox is expected to receive a contract extension. Next season will be the final year of his contract. Fox will turn 59 on Saturday but he says he feels better and has more energy than he did in the sixth months prior to his heart surgery on Nov. 4.

The expectation is Fox would have the final year of his existing contract torn up and he would sign a new three-year or four-year deal with the Broncos.

Kevin Campbell tailgates with “The Drive” bus painted with Denver Broncos team colors at the south side of Sports Authority Field at Mile High in Denver on Jan. 18, 2014. (Hyoung Chang, The Denver Post)

Good Sunday morning, Broncos fans. This is your Broncos Game Day Insider:

GAME TIME: It has been 2,918 DAYS since the Denver Broncos last had an opportunity to play in the AFC championship (Jan. 22, 2006, vs. the Pittsburgh Steelers). h/t @MaseDenver

FORECAST: Sunny, with a high near 68. West northwest wind 9 to 11 mph, with gusts as high as 17 mph, according to the National Weather Service.

Brian Xanders at his office on July 14, 2011, at Dove Valley in Englewood.

It seems Brian Xanders has a decent chance to become the Miami Dolphins’ next general manager.

The Dolphins could make a far worse choice.

Xanders is, first of all, one of those guys who everybody likes. And he’s intensely loyal to the people he works for, which explains why he was one of the few in the Broncos’ front office to survive when Mike Shanahan was let go and replaced by Josh McDaniels, and was able to survive again, at least for a while, when the McDaniels’ era was eradicated and replaced by John Elway.

Knowshon Moreno has busted out for the Broncos this season. (John Leyba, The Denver Post)

For football fans in Denver and around the world, here’s your newest edition of the Broncos Insider Newsletter, with links and stats from around the country looking toward Sunday’s Denver vs. New England AFC championship game…

Put a Colorado CRAFT BEER in your mouth. Left Hand Brewing in Longmont called an ‘audible’ on Peyton Manning’s Bud Light choice. They sent an open letter — and three cases of beer — to Broncos HQ, c/o the QB. C’mon Peyton, Sawtooth is way better than Bud Light.

The New England Patriots coordinators spoke to the Boston-area press on Monday via conference call. The Pats offensive coordinator is Josh McDaniels, who was the Broncos’ head coach from 2009 until he was fired with four games remaining in the 2010 season.

The Broncos have recovered nicely, thanks in part to selecting pass-rushing strongside linebacker Von Miller with the No. 2 overall pick in the 2011 draft. The No. 2 pick came courtesy of McDaniels leading the Broncos to a 4-12 record.

According to the NFL Players Association, the New England Patriots not only signed quarterback Tim Tebow to a minimum, $630,000 salary with a split against injury in 2013 but also the minimum $730,000 salary with a split for 2014.

The top two candidates to replace departed Broncos offensive coordinator Mike McCoy are current Denver quarterbacks coach Adam Gase and former Cardinals head coach Ken Whisenhunt. But other coaches could sneak into the equation. Here’s a look:

Broncos QB coach Adam Gase

Up-and-comer who arrived in Josh McDaniels’ first year in 2009 and has drawn praise for his work with Tim Tebow and Peyton Manning. Was wide receivers coach when Brandon Marshall was with the Broncos. Former Rams coach Mike Martz has called Gase “a fabulous coach.”

The performance by Knowshon Moreno last week at Kansas City was a reminder that the Broncos have one the league’s best running backs coaches in Eric Studesville.

Moreno was inactive for eight consecutive games, yet Studesville kept him prepared enough for 85 yards rushing on 20 carries plus 26 yards receiving on four catches. A back doesn’t go from collecting mothballs to collecting more than 100 yards from scrimmage without coaching.

Ben McDaniels, the younger brother of former Broncos head coach Josh McDaniels, is now an offensive assistant coach for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Ben McDaniels was on the Broncos’ coaching staff in 2009 as an offensive assistant and in 2010 as Tim Tebow’s first quarterbacks coach.

Ben’s Bucs will travel to Denver this weekend for a game against the Broncos at Sports Authority Field at Mile High. I know people around here don’t care much for Ben’s older brother, but Ben is a solid guy.

I remember Chris Simms, a veteran Broncos backup QB during the McDaniels’ years, was impressed with how well prepared Ben McDaniels was as a quarterbacks coach.

Team Denver Post -- Mike Klis, Lindsay Jones and Jeff Legwold -- after Monday Night Football in San Diego last week. Not a bad game on which to go out.

A few months ago, when my parents finally made me move several bins of my childhood belongings out of their home near Ft. Collins, I discovered original copies of The Denver Post sports section, dated Jan. 26 and Jan. 27, 1998 — the days immediately following the Broncos’ first Super Bowl championship.

I was 16 years old and a writer on my high school newspaper when I saved those papers. (The next year, I would write my first Broncos’ article — a story about a group of boys at my high school who formed their own club that met every Monday morning to break down Broncos’ games. Pulitzer-worthy stuff, I’m sure.)

Discovering those newspapers this summer was a reminder that I was, indeed, living a dream. If you would have told 16 year old me that I would, just 15 years later, be working for that very newspaper, alongside several of the writers whose bylines graced those pages, I certainly would not have believed you.

The Denver Broncos' golf outing was started by former coach Josh McDaniels.

The Broncos are off from coaching and practicing today but not from bonding. The players, coaches and football-operations staff are gathering today for a private, 9-hole golf outing.

Talk about pressure on the No. 1 tee box.

The team golf outing was started by former coach Josh McDaniels, who really did have his share of good ideas. There was no such golf outing last year in the first season of John Elway and John Fox because of the lockout.

Dinner, yucks and awards will follow. The Broncos will resume their OTA schedule tomorrow.

I disagree with the notion the Broncos would have trouble trading Tim Tebow if they land free-agent Peyton Manning.

True, the quarterback spots are filling up. There are way more quality backup QBs available (Vince Young, Josh Johnson, Dennis Dixon) than backup jobs. GMs and coaches might balk at adding Tebow, who plays quarterback along a path unfamiliar to NFL GMs and coaches, and also carries along the distraction of a passionate fan base.

But as we learned from Tennessee’s late pursuit of Peyton Manning, owners have the right to trump the GM and coach.

Josh McDaniels, the most reviled head coach in Broncos history, becomes the St. Louis Rams’ offensive coordinator. He finishes the season with the Rams, who average an NFL-worst 12.1 points per game while McDaniels turns Sam Bradford, the NFL’s Offensive Rookie of the Year in 2010, into the 30th ranked passer.

And today, McDaniels may well be rewarded for that horrific coaching season by getting a Super Bowl ring?

Eddie Royal talks with reporters before clearing out his locker Sunday at Broncos headquarters.

Last January, Broncos players packed up their belongings and left Dove Valley unsure about who their head coach would be. They found out a few weeks later it would be John Fox, but because of the NFL lockout that stretched into late summer, it wasn’t until training camp that most players got to know Fox.

Today, numerous players gushed about the job Fox did in his first year in Denver, as the Broncos improved from 4-12 and last in the AFC West to 8-8 and division champs (by way of tiebreakers).

“We were coached well, this year,” linebacker Joe Mays said. “That was a lot different than last year. Last year we weren’t a well-coached team. The moment Coach Fox stepped in here, that losing aspect just left the building.”

You never know, of course. But as I watched and listened to Broncos offensive coordinator Mike McCoy this year, it did strike me how “presidential” he is in the way he conducts himself.

Now before going too far, let’s get this out of the way: There are two truths in every NFL city: One, the backup quarterback is always the most popular player. Two, everybody complains about the play-calling.

Maybe, New Orleans’ fans don’t complain about Sean Payton’s play calling. At least they shouldn’t. I know Green Bay fans think Mike McCarthy doesn’t run the ball enough. Same with New England fans about their offense.

Everywhere else, I’m telling you, when the offense comes off a game in which it got outscored, the play-calling stands next to the quarterback as targets for blame.

The Broncos weren’t the only team that failed at finding a long-term head coach in 2009.

Eleven different NFL teams hired a new coach (or promoted an interim head coach) that offseason. Just two full seasons later, at least eight of those coaches are long gone from the teams that hired them, including Josh McDaniels, who was fired by the Broncos in December 2010.

Nicki Jhabvala is a Broncos beat writer for The Denver Post. She was previously the digital news editor for sports. Before arriving in Denver, she spent five years at Sports Illustrated working primarily as its online NBA editor. She also spent two years as a home page editor at the New York Times.